Guardians just got humbled by White Sox's surprise bullpen signing

The Cleveland Guardians clearly made adding to the bullpen their priority this offseason. In fact, they made it so much of a priority that the only big league additions they made to their roster this year have come in the form of bullpen additions. 

As of now, those additions are Colin Holderman, Connor Brogdon, Peyton Pallette and Shawn Armstrong are in the big league fold while Codi Heuer and Pedro Avila are lingering in the background. 

It’s a great group of depth arms behind Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and others. 

But all those moves look a bit more underwhelming now thanks to the White Sox’s signing of free agent Seranthony Domínguez on Friday, which was first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. It’s a two-year, $20 million deal. 

The White Sox were able to free up a bunch of money on their 2026 payroll by trading Luis Robert Jr. to the Mets earlier this week, and signing Domínguez was the perfect use of those newfound funds. 

Guardians fans should be envious of the White Sox’s signing of Seranthony Domínguez

While Domínguez won’t be able to help pull the White Sox out of the American League Central basement by himself, he has a history of being an effective high-leverage reliever and immediately becomes the best closer option the White Sox have had since Liam Hendriks at the beginning of the decade. 

Last season Domínguez posted a 3.16 ERA in 62 2/3 innings with the Orioles and Blue Jays, and added 11 1/3 effective innings in Toronto’s postseason run. Perhaps the biggest reason for that success was a change in his arsenal, as he added a new splitter and curveball in 2025 that popped his strikeout rate up to 30.3%. 

While his walk rate of 13.8% was one of the worst marks in baseball, he was in the 94th percentile in whiff rate and the 91st percentile in strikeout rate. That’s the trade-off the White Sox will gladly make.

It’s also the kind of pitching makeup that none of the Guardians’ new additions have. Shawn Armstrong is the best of the bunch (2.31 ERA last season), but his strikeout rate was a more modest 26.1%. 

Holderman, Brogdon and Pallette all have intriguing peripherals, none of them have the major league track record that Domínguez has. 

Part of the reason the Guardians have been able to feast on the White Sox in recent years has been due to Chicago’s lack of a shutdown closer.

Jordan Leasure led Chicago with seven saves last season, and there was a point in April where they turned to MIke Clevinger to try to close out a game against Cleveland. It didn’t go well. 

The White Sox already made an impressive move this offseason by signing Munetaka Murakami to a two-year contract, and their decision to sign Domínguez to a contract of the same length speaks to the internal belief Chris Getz has in his team’s window to succeed. 

The Guardians will get their first chance to see Domínguez and the White Sox on June 22 at Rate Field.